My Immortal
by Lilian Cass
Summary: An all original story of my own about a young woman from Salem who is drawn out of her room late one night by a mysterious man. Please R&R, I have been working on this manuscript for over 6 months now.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One:**_

The year was 1699, and Salem was a healing town. Families all around were short members. Fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters had all fallen to the accusations. The witch trials had taken place all around the world, but everyone was left hurt or missing someone.

* * *

Catherine sat there in her nightdress, her knees together and feet apart on the top most step of the back porch of the shabby cottage home. She was a teenage angel with long platinum blond hair that ghosted the small of her back and bright green eyes that shined brighter then the brightest of emeralds. As a child, even though her parents were taken at a young age to their deaths during the trials, she was known as one of the most innocent girls in her town. That night, the waxing moon shown bright on the black canvas of the night sky as the green eyes watched the moon with attentiveness; gray clouds threatened to devour the moon, though inevitably they always did.

As she watched, no true thoughts passed through her mind, just beauty of the stars, the moon in the sky, and the ever-present darkness all around.

As the gray clouds slowly covered the sliver moon, her grandmother called for her company in the kitchen. She walked slowly as the translucent nightdress softly caressed her baby-soft skinned body.

On entering the kitchen doorway, her grandmother stood at the sink and washed the supper dishes. The room was fairly small, but it served its purpose.

"Yes Grandma'ma?" Catherine asked as she slowly walked closer to her mother's mother, the woman who has been her guardian since she was only eight years of age.

"Dear, why are you so blue? You have been quiet, as if thinking deeply, and avoiding everyone in this house. Why?" the elderly woman asked sadly as she halted in her efforts of the dishes, turning to look into her granddaughter's eyes.

"Grandma'ma, I'm not sad at all. And when I am alone, I am not thinking. Just... looking." the young girl whispered, sounding somewhat detached from the moment.

"Please don't tell me this is related to the sudden talk of your mother's and father's deaths. All the words about are lies. They were not witches or vampires propositioned by the devil." Tears came to the elder woman's eyes as she spoke of her daughter and son-in-law, who were now seven years dead.

"Grandma'ma! Please! Don't upset yourself. This mood of mine, it is unrelated to the lies about my mother and father. I want to know the meaning of life!" she paused to swirl around once in the small kitchen, her hair flowing around her, her night dress swaying in the breeze she created. "The reason why we are all here and suffer the ways we do!" She suddenly became somber, tears filling her eyes. "I know my parents were not witches or vampires. They were wonderful. Nice, beautiful and caring people." Her words were full of emotion, giving the elder lady a peek into the mind of her not-so-young-anymore granddaughter.

"Ann, I know. You really have no need to tell me how my daughter was. I know she was wonderful! I raised her!" The elder woman cried of guilt for raising her voice at her only grandchild. Catherine stood before her with tears slowly falling down her cheeks as she tried to compose herself.

"I'm going to bed. Please leave me alone." Catherine sighed through her forced calm. Turning away, she walked quickly down the short corridor to her bedchamber, slamming the hollow wooden door behind her with tears in her eyes.

Cold. Alone. That was how she felt, no matter how hard her grandparents tried to reach out to her. She knew they loved her, she knew she had suitors in the town who also liked her very much. But it never made her feel any better. Running over to her bed, an almost royal looking canopy frame that held a large, full size bed, large enough for two people to sleep comfortably upon, she threw herself down upon the soft goose feather comforter that was once her parents'. All of the loneliness she felt and couldn't rid herself of no matter what, went into her tears.

Suddenly her sobs went silent. Her echoed cries died away from her chamber and she laid still, all her hearts desire concentrated on this sudden feeling.

But what was this feeling? Could someone be watching her as she lay upon her bed crying? Yes, she told herself, but this presence was not that of her grandmother's or her grandfather's, but rather a somewhat foreboding stranger that was new to her senses.

Tears began to fill her eyes once again. The black hanging curtains lay eerily unmoved in her half open window; there was no breeze to sway the fabric.

Was there really a foreboding presence lurking about the yard? Or wheat field perhaps? She continued to lay still, fearful of what could happen if she moved. Would that person or creature attack her if she moved? Could she risk it?

She lay on her bed crying silently as a breeze blew gently through the open window, the curtains swaying softly in the wind's wake. Then, as if she could recognize the other presence, she sat up on her bed and rose slowly, an empty look in her eyes.

As she walked closer to the window, she saw a shadowy figure outlined by the moonlight. He was like a beckoned figure, almost as if he were drawing her closer, making her want to crawl through the half open window and follow him through the night. Though she knew something of the manor would be reckless and never be allowed by her grandparents.

The shadowy man suddenly raised his hand to her, as if calling for her silently.

'Come to me, my dear. Join me...' was the calm, silky voice that filled the young girl's thoughts. She seemed to loose control of her conscious self and the next she realized, she was feet before him, standing in the middle of her grandparent's wheat field.

'My dear.' the man sighed, whom now Catherine could tell was a fairly tall, brown haired man who could be no older then twenty-five. It was almost like he spoke to her right through her mind, his lips never moving when he spoke. Like magic, she thought idly, and then he asked her to grab hold of his hand and walk with him into the dark forest.

After a few minutes, though felt like miles, she looked behind to their trail on the forest floor and up to where her cabin home had been, but could no longer be seen. The trees all around where large with age and close together, small bushes grew at the bases of many trees, casting spooky shadows on the forest floor when caught by the moonlight.

Catherine turned to the still silent man. "Where are we now?" she softly asked as they continued walking, now with rising difficulty. After speaking and gaining no response, she began to shiver in the summer breeze, regretting her departure. Frightened at what may happen next, she stopped walking, and he stopped in line with her, almost as if he were expecting her to stop anytime.

'What's the matter?' he asked her in his sweet, silky voice, though still without moving his lips, just as he had done the last time he had spoken in the field.

"You never move your lips when you speak to me! Who are you? Why are you bringing me out to the middle of this forest?" her eyes began to tear as she began to panic on the inside and the mysterious man simply looked at her with no apparent expression. "Are you going to kill me?" Goose flesh spread itself all over her baby soft skin.

"No." came a strangely rough voice, sounding as though it had not been used in years, but nonetheless from the mysteriously beautiful man. She was a bit shocked when he replied by speaking; though the lips did move as he spoke aloud, the top lip never seemed to reveal any teeth. "My intentions are not to kill you, but free you."

"Free me?" she asked innocently as if she were still crying on her bed, wishing to be free of her grandparent's home. But before she could clear her mind and thoughts, the man grabbed her by behind the knees and the back, holding her light body in his arms; not even without a second thought, he continued walking. "Where are we going?" She was strangely calmer now, yet the tears still stained her beautiful face as she spoke.

"To my home. You do not mind, do you?" he asked, his voice sounding rather innocent for a normal twenty-five year old. He spoke with an unknown agenda, like that of an older man, though he looked and sounded as if he had yet to end his maturing stage of life.

"Your home? You live out here?" she asked as they walked, slower now it seemed. By many trees and bushes they passed until a small cabin was visible just yards before the pair, in a circular clearing.

"Yes I do. But you're the first to know in years." he said kindly as he set the girl back down on her own bare feet and put his hand on the small rusted door handle that lead to the unknown on the other side of the door. "You don't mind not telling anybody, do you?" he asked the fair maiden as she looked into the man's eyes, almost like she were in a trance. But with this lock at which they held, Catherine was able to tell that the man had dark brown eyes, so dark they almost looked black.

The space at which they stood upon was illuminated by a flame that sat alight on it's own pedestal on the left of the door.

"Of course. But why be so secretive? Don't you wish to share your knowledge? Let everybody know about your intellect?" she asked with a shy, almost whisper that suggested she felt uncomfortable in the unknown man's presence.

He smiled at the girl's ignorance, thinking he hid from the world because of his brains. "There are so many things you don't know about me, but I must say, you shall know these secrets before too long. I have many reasons for my seclusion." he told her as he smiled a smile that showed no teeth.

"Do you believe in magical creatures?" Catherine asked after a silent moment. His eyes flashed wide as he received the question in his mind then returned to a calm position. Had she simply guessed at one of his many secrets? By all saying, anything was completely possible.

He opened the door and allowed Catherine to enter before entering himself. The room was small for a main living room, but had a cozy air as a fire burnt in the center of the room. "Magical creatures? As in unicorns and fairies?" he asked jokingly as he closed the door. Catherine kept walking until she felt the warmth of the fire in the shabby shack.

She looked around herself and at the shadowed walls that surrounded her, there seemed to be a door on each side of her. When she heard the click of the door at which she and he entered, she turned back to it to see that to the right of the door hung two hooks nailed into the wall, most likely used for hanging coats and hats among one's entrance of the shack.

"Of course not silly." She spoke in a flat toned voice, eying him with a look of carelessness. "I mean vampires and witches. Do you believe that they really exist?" she asked quietly as she sat in the seat that was offered to her by the man. In the firelight, she could now see that he seemed pale, almost as if he had been ill for weeks.

"Vampires and witches, huh?" he asked in response as he silently laughed at the irony of the situation.

He pulled up a molding, broken chair from a dark corner of the shack and set it next to that of Catherine's. _Everything looks as though they have seen many years_, Catherine thought.

"I must say," he pondered as he basked in the warm aura of the fire, "your question seems beyond your years. If I were you, I would not worry about anything like that."

"Mister, please don't avoid the question. Do you or do you not believe in the existence of vampires and witches?" she asked now with a bit more demand and impatience, though she still shivered as if she were alone in the woods in the middle of the winter season.

"If you put it in that form of words, then I must be honest and admit that I do in fact believe in vampires and witches." he answered the young girl's inquiry honestly as he stared deeply into the fire. "For summer, you're quite cold. Are you ill?" he asked suddenly as he turned to the girl.

While he stared interestingly at the fragile young maiden next to him, he took notice that he could clearly see her body through her nightdress.

"I'm not ill, only cold and a bit embarrassed." she whispered out as she shivered once more, and drew her knees tightly to her chest, her heels resting comfortably on the edge of the chair at which she sat upon.

The man brashly stood up, frightening Catherine just enough to make her jump, but he seemed to take no notice. He walked to the door on the opposite wall of the entrance and opened the door to reveal a large, dark room where nothing was visible.

He disappeared within the darkness for a moment before reappearing only moments later with an aged petty coat.

"Here, please put this on Catherine." he said dryly as he handed the coat to her. She slowly looked up from the fire and reached out for the coat.

She stood up and pulled it over her arms and shoulders. It was black and reeked with the stench of age, but for some reason she seemed to believe that it looked somewhat becoming on her.

"Dance with me?" he asked her as she looked herself up and down, turning around to see how the aged coat accented her fragile form.

"Huh?" she asked stupidly as she stopped moving and looking about herself to look curiously into the still-unknown man's eyes.

He reached out his hand as if formally asking. "Please allow me to have this dance?" he asked as he half bowed, never removing his eyes from her terrified eyes..

Catherine blushed heavily as she shyly reached out her hand and softly laid her fingers on the palm of the man's.

"Please don't be scared. I promise I won't hurt you. I just wish for a dance partner..." he whispered softly, almost seductively, in her ear as he placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her closer to his body. He then took hold of her hand and placed it upon his own shoulder. With his only free hand, he held her hand in a waltz dance position.

"Um, I hate to say, but, I'm really not all that skilled for dance." she whispered lightly as she blushed, staring downward at her bare toes.

"Just follow my lead." he softly whispered into Catherine's ear as he perfectly stepped to the dance. Her steps were off from his, but by his moves, he neither noticed nor cared.

"Th- there's no music though." she softly, but obviously stated as they slowly waltzed around the warm fire.

"We can dance to our own music, can't we?" he asked as he stopped dancing and looked deeply into Catherine's eyes; he held her tightly to his body as he attempted to understand her current thoughts, but it seemed she had none.

"It's almost morning." Catherine said suddenly after three hours of staying locked eye to eye with the man. "I should really be back in my chambers before my grandparents wake." she told him respectively, and then they parted so she could warm her hands over the fire and the man stood near the door.

After the long walk back to Catherine's cottage home, the man held her in a shockingly tight embrace. The strength he exerted made Catherine squeak, and he jumped when he heard that.

"I'm sorry! Sometimes I forget how strong I am." he apologized over zealously as he softly held her. Catherine could not help but think that he wished to not see her leave him.

"It's alright, really." she breathed as she gently rubbed her head on his chest; she still wore his long black petty coat.

"Can I come see you tomorrow night as well?" he asked like an innocent child desperate for attention.

She gently giggled before looking up into the man's eyes. "I suppose you may, but I must be frank and say I really have no idea what your name is." she told him as he reacted utterly shocked. _It's almost as if he hasn't spoken or been with another person in a very long time_, Catherine thought momentarily.

"I'm sorry!" he apologized happily, "I really thought I had told you my name already." he cleared his throat proudly before speaking, "My name is Ralph Crenshaw IV." He bowed respectively as if he were introducing himself to the Queen of England herself.

"Ralph Crenshaw." she whispered to herself as she slowly strolled back to her cabin home. When she made it all the way to her window, which was her point of exit, she turned around to look back at the very spot of the wheat field where Ralph Crenshaw still stood, perhaps waiting for her to enter her home.

She waved back to him unabashedly, and he waved just the same. Catherine carefully climbed back through her window and looked out once more at the wheat field, just as she had done earlier that night, but there was no distant sight of the man for her eyes to behold.

Disappointedly, she turned away from the window to absorb the fair sight of her always-clean bedchamber. Her door was still bolted, her bed just the bit ruffled as she had left it, and her dresses... Her dresses?

"What?" she softly spoke aloud to herself as she carefully tiptoed to the now open closet that stood next to her clothing chest. Inside, on a finely polished wooden hanger hung a beautiful pearl embroidered gown, with a note pinned to the chest with a sewing needle.

_Dearest of Angles,_ the note read,_ I bestow this royally fashioned gown upon you, for you to wear and take care of. _The writing of the letter was fairly old English, with the curve at the end of every word. _I please ask,_ she continued to read,_ that you wear this pearl gown to bed tomorrow night. From there, I will come to you, and request your dance in a ball tuxedo. Great evening to you and best wishes, Ralph Crenshaw. _Concluded the letter with a fancy signature on the bottom.

She read the note over two more times before she set it upon her chest of drawers and withdrew the gown from the closet. The flow of the gown as she set it against her body seemed to flow like water down a stream.

Catherine spun around gracefully as she held the gown against her. Then it came to her, like water falling from a high mountain range to a low valley. This beautiful gown belonged to her.

Quickly, without thinking about one thing more, she slipped off the petty coat, throwing it softly on the floor at the foot of the bed, then slipped out of her translucent nightdress, which fell quietly to the floor at her feet. She climbed into the gown and pulled it over herself.

Latching up the back, she starred oddly at her reflection and the way it gave her a blessed, heavenly look. She noted on how the soft creamy pearl color accented her skin and facial features. The gown length reached her toes, and ghosted the floor. Her angelic blond hair whispered against the pearls on the small of her back, gracing her with an odd, immortal aura.

She spun once. Twice. Three times.

The beauty of the frill as she spun, gave her a whole new thought of the gown. _This dress was, and never could have been, any ordinary piece of fabric.

* * *

_

_A/N: Hey, sorry about the confusion with the names like that! I had to change them from their original names because I recieved an email from a reader who told me that I was playgerizing L. K. Hamilton, and after reading a few of her novels I did notice that two of my characters did indeed share names (and that was all) so I changed them to avoid a conflict of interest._

_Enjoy!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two: Angel**_

As the sun slowly rose, Catherine laid innocently in her bed sleeping softly, the pearl embroidered gown hung soundlessly in her locked closet. Just the least bit audible, were her grandparents in their shared bedchamber, just waking along with the sun.

The footsteps, most likely of those of her grandmother's, padded their way to the opposite end of the home. Not more then twenty minutes later were the sounds of cooking in the kitchen.

Catherine began to smell the air, catching the scent of breakfast in her nose. She rose slowly from the depths of her feather comforter and yawned heavily, still tired from the previous night.

"Dear?" her grandfather softly announced as he tapped twice upon Catherine's chamber door. His voice was raspy, either from age or sleep, or even a combination of the two; he was above all rather cheerful for the beginning of a new day.

"Yes, grandfather?" Catherine responded short of breath after expressing yet another long yawn.

"Dear, when you are dressed, please join your grandmother and me for breakfast in the breakfast room." he requested as he heard his only and most dearest granddaughter stand up and step closer to the chamber door until he heard the bolt unlock. The door opened slowly to reveal the angel to her grandfather.

"Of course grandfather, I could dream of nothing more." she assured him as she smiled a warm and loving smile to her grandfather before kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Of course you wouldn't, otherwise you wouldn't get breakfast." he laughed softly before he became serious once more, saying "You better apologize to your grandmother as well darling, she fears you may be angry with her." he softly whispered in her ear as she gave her grandfather, whom was only inches taller then she, a warm good morning hug.

"I will, I fear I was against myself last night grandfather." she told him as she leaned against the chamber door, preparing to close it.

"Well dear, please tell your grandmother that, you know very well how much she cares for you. Please join us when you are dressed." he noted one last time before he shuffled his way down the corridor to his wife, who was cooking her normal, daily breakfast in the kitchen. Catherine saw her grandfather kiss her grandmother once on the cheek before closing her chamber door and leaning her back against it in such a way as if to think. But she did not.

Catherine quickly moved away from her door and to her closet, which she slowly unbolted, and opened. She looked at her new pearl embroidered gown, and grabbed the pink home dress that hung to its left.

She walked slowly down the corridor; as she came upon her grandmother preparing the table, she smiled.

"Good morning dear, sleep well I hope?" the elder woman asked conversationally as she one by one set the breakfast additions upon the table, then sitting herself down in the chair next to her husband. As they prayed for a safe day, Catherine took no interest or part in it.

She seemed distracted, thinking about the man, whom last night was standing in her grandparents' wheat field, awaiting only her company, and seeming to only _want _her company. She heard her grandparents utter the ending 'amen' of their prayer and brought herself back to the existing reality she unfortunately lived in.

"So dear," her grandmother asked once more, "did you sleep well?" The elder lady began to fill her plate with the eggs and sausage rounds she had prepared as her, her husband and granddaughter's breakfast.

"Actually, I did." Catherine calmly responded just before she took a fork full of eggs and placed them carefully into her mouth.

"Did you have sweet dreams?" the elder woman asked curiously as she too continued to eat.

Catherine thought a moment. Should she tell her grandmother about the previous night, in the form of a dream? "Yes, I did." she paused momentarily. "I had a dream that this man was standing in the wheat field, just looking at our home. It was really unusual." she added as an after thought more to herself then to convince her grandparents.

After breakfast, Catherine sat in the kitchen on the chest of drawers and watched her grandmother wash the breakfast dishes and gather the necessities for their lunches.

"Grandma'ma?" Catherine shyly asked as she drew imaginary circles on the counter next to her.

"Yes dear?" the elder woman responded as she continued with her daily chores.

"I apologize for the way I spoke to you last night grandma'ma." she heartedly told the age withered woman.

"Please dear, there are never any hard feelings when you say things during a tantrum." the old woman responded seriously before she turned to see the look of surprised shock on Catherine's face. This only added to the small giggles in the older lady's throat that soon became loud laughs shared between the two.

"One more thing grandma'ma, before you kill yourself with laughter," she paused to control her own laughs, "have you ever heard of a man named Ralph Crenshaw?" She asked with laughter still in her voice, but her grandmother's laughs died away quickly, leaving behind a deafening echo in its wake.

"Why do you wish to know?" she asked suddenly as she looked over at her young grandchild. She paused a moment, but began to tell before she ever received a response. "The man was a blood thirsty murderer. I'm surprised that he ever had children. That monster is four generations gone. I assure you that there is no need for you to worry about a man so old that he's left our world."

Catherine calculated the tables a moment. "Were his children named after him? Generation after generation?"

"Well, yes. But that's nothing for you to worry about. That family line ended in 1488, when the last son disappeared when he went on a hunting expedition in England." The elder lady resumed with the washing of the dishes. "From whom did you hear that name from?" she asked to suit her own curiosity.

"Emily spoke of it yesterday, just as an after thought to something her Mother and Father had said to her." Catherine spoke distantly of her life long best friend as she thought about the man who lived in the woods.

As suddenly as she had asked the question, Catherine jumped off the chest and bid her busy grandmother farewell for the time. She quickly ran down the short corridor and into her chamber, closing the door behind her, although not bolting the door as she had done the night before.

The young girl plopped her thin body down upon her bed before she began to think. Once doing so, she got back to her feet once again and dug out a notebook, ink bottle, and a quill. She opened the notebook, uncapped the inkbottle, and began to write.

She wrote to herself about the previous night's events, detailing the descriptions of her sights and sounds. The appearance of the man in the night, Ralph Crenshaw; his silky voice touched with a distant British accent. The way his skin was aglow in the fire light, and the iris of his eyes so dark, could have been a portrait of the night painted carefully on the canvas of his eyes, and how the man's personality told a story other then the one he wished it would, almost as if he held within him a deep, dark secret.

Catherine sat up a moment and thought. For a man of his age, which could have been no older then around twenty-five, how could he hold the composure of a man withered with age? The longer she pondered this question the more bewildered she became.

It was hard to tell how long exactly she sat upon her bed, attempting to calculate and figure out explanations as to why the young man was as he was, but after not too long, Catherine was asleep, wrapped up in her feather comforter. The sun had to yet even rise to high noon when a beautiful young girl the same age as Catherine slowly popped her head into the chamber through the ajar door.

This girl, known as Samantha, slowly creped her way into her friend's bedchamber as she slept softly. Samantha herself was greatly shorter then her counterpart Catherine, but then to say, there was very little that the two held in common. Her hair was black with curls that reached not far bellow her shoulders, and her eyes were blue like the cloudless sky. The dress she wore was one of a bit more fancy then that of the one that Catherine wore, due to Samantha's family being far richer then that of Catherine's could ever dream of being, but the two girls never took notice of these matters, making their friendship stronger. Samantha, as Catherine found out, was a new immigrant from England; she had left home when she was seven.

As Catherine rolled over slowly and opened her eyes just a crack, she noticed a dark haired form bent over looking at her as she lay upon her bed. Catherine was not sure what it was that she was seeing, so she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and did a double take and screamed when she noticed the hunched figure was her friend Samantha.

"By the Gods! Samantha! What are you doing in my chamber?" Catherine exclaimed as she sat up in her bed with a frightened but shocked look upon her now deathly pale face; Catherine's cheeks then flushed red from her angered shock.

"Your grandmother informed me that you were in here sleeping and that I should wake you up!" Samantha smiled as she joyfully sat on the bed next to her friend. "Only naughty girls stay up all night little missy! You were up all night, weren't you?" she asked as she carefully wrapped her arms around Catherine's neck and shoulders, speaking like she knew her friend had done something lecherous.

"I was not up all night!" Catherine weakly defended herself as she flushed embarrassed; Samantha's intuition took Catherine by great surprise.

"Oh, really? Care to prove it?" Samantha checked her friend as she pulled Catherine down upon her back and climbed atop her.

"I need not prove myself to you!" she weakly shot back at Samantha, who was giggling softly, as she sat on Catherine's stomach lightly.

"Then you were!" she excitedly exclaimed as she leaned forward whispering, "Where did you go? And with whom? What did you two do?"

Catherine sighed heavily, finding that she was obviously defeated. "I went for a walk through the forest, with a friend of mine." She said the words quietly, as if they were the incantation to a dangerous spell she felt better to not utter.

"The forest?" Samantha exclaimed in surprise as she rose from her hunched form upon Catherine's body. "With a friend of yours? Which friend? You have like, hundreds!"

"I do not!" Catherine exclaimed as she embarrassingly attempted to sit up, but her efforts were all in that of vain, for it seemed Samantha was unwilling to sit upon anything besides her friend. "His name is Ralph." she whispered almost silently as she allowed her body to flop backwards upon the bed.

"What was that?" Samantha asked as she noticed that her witty friend had spoken and that she herself had not heard it.

Catherine slightly raised her voice and repeated the words she had just previously spoken. "His name is Ralph, he's an older male friend of mine." she added as a sudden after thought. She knew that would make her promiscuous friend interested, just as did any talk about an older man.

"A man? Named Ralph? Catherine, there is no man in our village named Ralph." Samantha stated as she thought a moment on the idea of a young girl entering the nearest large forest with an older, more experienced man named Ralph, which nobody knows whom is. "Is he cute?" she suddenly asked, off the worry and on the man.

Catherine suddenly raised her upper body, using her arms to hold her up as she looked shocked into the pools of daydreaming that were now Samantha's eyes. But then as their eyes met, both straight faced, they burst out with an uncontrollable laughter, which seemed endless. This case of giggles had in fact lasted until a knock came at the door, presumably from that of Catherine's grandmother.

"Catherine darling, are you two well?" the elder woman inquired with a slight laugh in her own voice as she cautiously stepped into the chamber.

"Yes grandmother, we're well." Catherine giggled softly as she took in large gasps of air in the effort to regain her breath.

"Great dear, I was beginning to feel worrisome. Please come join me for some lunch my dears." The elder woman promptly left the chamber after extending the invitation to the two girls.

Later that evening, the golden rays of a setting sun washed over Catherine and Samantha as they lay on their backs in the soft spongy grass that grew just feet away from the back steps that lead upward to the cabin home. The golden light appeared to accent Catherine's blond hair just as beautifully as the full lunar orb that expressed bright light only one night a month, carving the image into an even more beautiful picture.

"Samantha? Do you remember what we were speaking of earlier today?" Catherine asked suddenly as she forcefully pulled herself from the blessed feeling of a nap after supper.

"Earlier? You mean about _Him_?" Samantha half sarcastically recalled Catherine's and her's earlier conversation about Catherine's reason for being so tired that day.

"Yes silly, it is partially related to Ralph, maybe even completely." Catherine mostly spoke her after thought to herself.

After a moment or two of silence, Samantha spoke. "So are you going to tell me whatever it is you were going to tell me? Or were you just trying to rub it in my beautiful yet lonely face that there's a mysterious man out there who seems interested in you?" She joked around with her words but as she spoke the last question, Catherine seemed to blush heavily, perhaps afraid that what Samantha spoke could possibly be true, but would an older man take interest in a young girl? Or was all that just fairy tale?

"I'm sorry, I became distracted suddenly, just totally went blank." Catherine giggled apologetically as she blushed. "But there is something I wish to show you, it is in my closet in my chambers. Do you wish to see it?" she asked excitedly.

"Of course!" she responded as Catherine helped her off the grass and into the cabin home.

While walking down the corridor, Samantha's mind went unnaturally blank before she began to think about how easily Catherine became embarrassed. So simple, as if every or anything can make her blush.

"Samantha, please bolt the lock behind you." Catherine whispered as she carefully unlocked her closet.

After Samantha was assured the chamber door was locked, she turned around, and was completely stunned at the sight she had to behold. Catherine was dressed in a gown of European royalty, beautiful enough for even the Queen of England herself to presume.

Catherine!" Samantha walked forward and felt the pearls, which were carefully sewn onto an amazingly rare fabric that was almost never seen on a woman unless born to a family with riches of a king. "This is what that Mr. Ralph gave to you last night? It's beautiful!" she exclaimed as she felt uncontainable joy at the sight of the gown.

"He wants me to wear it tonight when we see each other again. It's such a beautiful gown; it makes me wonder where in the world he would be able to gather enough money to purchase something so expensive! You know what I mean?" Catherine obsessed as she turned and allowed the gown to grace the soft curves of her body.

"Yes, I hear what you are saying. It seems odd that a man whom you seem to only know for a few hours would give you a dress worth so much. It makes one think, what kind of job one had to gather that much money to purchase such a gown." Samantha pondered the question a moment longer before allowing a large smile to pass over her lips at her uncontrollable excitement that the gown itself seemed to be radiating. "But you know, I wonder what an older man would want in return for such a treasure?" she giggled in such a curious manor that Catherine jokingly slapped her friend's shoulder, laughing along.

As the two girls began to settle down an hour or so later, Catherine walked over to her door and unbolted the lock. This made it possible for one of her grandparents to enter the room later on that night, if they wished to check on her as they usually did.

What only seemed minutes later, both Samantha and Catherine were sound asleep under the feather comforter, cuddled together in a loving manor only best friends ever could. Both girls were still dressed, and Catherine still wore the gown.

However, when the elder man came by to check on the two girls before bed, he took no notice of such royalties as the gown and continued upon his way to bed.

At the high-rise of the moon, Ralph Crenshaw IV emerged from the forest's edge and came to a stop in his place in the middle of the field, just the same as the night before.

'Catherine dear,' he spoke to Catherine's mind. 'Join me in this dance?' he asked as he awaited a response from inside the cabin.

Just when he believed she was not inside, a figure dressed in a fancy gown embroidered with pearls stepped in front of Catherine's chamber window.

'Join me dear Catherine.' he called once more as he raised his hand to her, waiting for her to slip her hand into his.

Catherine carefully climbed out the window and stepped about six feet in front of Ralph. The look she expressed was that of detachment, like it really were not the soul of Catherine who ruled over her body, but rather a force that took her over to do a person's bidding.

The reflected moonlight off each and every pearl on the gown gave Catherine the appearance of acquiring wings, with the heavenly grace of her pale, always glowing skin and radiating platinum blond hair. With all held in contempt, the appearance for all onlookers was one of the grace of an angel in the night.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three: Bang**_

As the sun slowly rose the next morning, Catherine was found sleeping in a slightly altered position, with a look of only rolling over. Even though Catherine had gone out in the middle of the forest with the mysterious Ralph, she would never remember leaving nor entering her home. Likewise, her young friend Samantha seemed to never notice that Catherine had ever left the chamber at all.

But as shocked to hear that Catherine had left the chamber, Samantha was even more shocked to hear that the mysterious man had come around while she was there, and that she missed her chance to catch a glance at the man who her friend had been obsessing over from the time she entered the chamber to the current moment. But even though the facts remained, Samantha was eager to hear the events of the previous night.

"Come on Annie! You have to tell me ALL that happened!!" Samantha begged as she sat on her knees in her day dress upon Catherine's wooden canopy bed. "Did you two do the naughty?" she asked deviously as she raised her one eyebrow in a look of many suggestions.

"Samantha!" Catherine reacted in a shocked manor at the suggestion of any such ideas. "We danced! That was all! Really, why would I, and a man I've only known for two nights do such awful acts as the one's you suggest? That's just awful Samantha!" Catherine stood in front of her closet dressed only in her under garments. She held within her arms the pearl gown and the lovely hand carved hanger that the gown came with. She carefully hung the gown back into the closet before pulling out her sky blue home dress and carefully stepping into it, and pulling it over her body. As she dressed, Samantha softly giggled at her friend's reaction to her ideas.

Catherine realized not long after Samantha's arrival to town that she was a rather promiscuous young girl, though if the adults of the town were to learn of her actions, she would surely be exiled from the church.

"Come Catherine! I am a naughty little girl! I wish to know what happened on your little date last night!" Samantha begged once more as Catherine came to a soft seat on her bed, next to the dark haired girl.

"Fine then, if you really wish to know so bad!" Catherine sighed heavily as she recalled the events of the previous night. "Well, the first thing I remember was walking together hand in hand down the woodland trail to his home." she spoke carefully as if weighting her every word precisely before speaking them aloud. "When we reached his home, we entered and danced slowly around the fire in the middle of his home. Mind you, his whole home _is_ based around this one fire." she began to speak faster, the excitement in her voice growing. "I believe that it is a source of heat as well as a cooker, but I'm quite unsure, seeing as he has never cooked while I was at his home." Samantha rolled her eyes just the bit obviously, giving her face the touch of annoyance.

Samantha sat staring at Catherine with a face that said something or another along the lines of 'please get to the details!' But still being polite, she sat quietly listening to every word, least a hidden detail slip her ear.

"Well, after that," she sighed heavily before continuing, "we left his home. From there, I only remember waking up." She sat quietly a moment, thinking about these times where she had absolutely no memory.

"What do you mean? How can you not remember?" Samantha asked as she looked at her friend as if she were withholding information that had to be known lest the whole world will explode.

"I don't know. I just don't remember." she repeated blankly as she shrugged her shoulders lightly. They sat in silence for a moment. But soon Catherine's stomach growled, making her suggest that they go into the kitchen to see if there was still food left from breakfast.

"Of course! After eating, you may be able to remember more of last night!" Samantha smiled happily as she climbed off the bed and fixed her dress. It was hard for Samantha to hide her anger at Catherine for withholding information that may be to her interest, but she loved her friend nonetheless.

"Samantha, please. When I say that I cannot remember, I really can't. Honestly. I would never lie to you." Catherine pleaded with her friend as she too stood from the bed, but Samantha was already by the chamber door when she spoke.

"It's alright Catherine, I don't mind if you really wish not to tell me what happened. Rather if you don't remember, then if I were you, I would not go back with him." she said harshly as they walked down the corridor to the kitchen. Her jealousy was evident.

"What do you mean? Why shouldn't I go back with him if I can't remember?" Catherine asked worried as she walked quickly to catch up to her friend, who was already looking through the food chest for settled food.

"Well, you have heard the rumors about, haven't you?" Samantha asked skeptically as she looked up at Catherine from the chest.

"Oh come on now, you know sure well that my grandparents are not letting me out of the home _because_ of the words about." she sighed with an attitude before she continued talking, "I came home one afternoon and told them that I heard naughty words about my parents, and they haven't allowed me to leave the grounds since." Her words were filled with depression as she spoke. Samantha knew very well how badly it hurt her friend to not be able to see new surroundings around her, though to count, she now knew the full story to answer the question of Catherine's depression.

_Catherine had always been a secluded person_, Samantha thought as she starred up at her dear friend.

"Oh. I had forgotten how they can be." Samantha replied softly as she remembered how often Catherine cursed her grandparent's possessiveness over her. "Well, the word flying about the town is that if one suffers the symptoms of forgetting, then it is safe to assume that whom ever you were with at the time of the memory fault is either a vampyre or a witch." she spoke candidly, as if she were doubtless it could be false.

Catherine knew what Samantha said was to be the exact words about the town due to her always alert attention of gossip. But could Ralph really be a witch or even a vampyre? How likely is something like that? She thought this to herself while they ate quietly.

"Samantha?" Catherine asked out of the silence of the bed chamber about an hour after they finished eating. The home was empty but for the two girls. They both figured, being a Saturday afternoon, Catherine's grandmother was at the market and her grandfather was working in the shop they owned and operated in town.

"Hmmm?" she quietly responded as she lay on her back next to Catherine. The bed they laid upon was freshly made, remade by Catherine just before the two had lain down; Samantha had watched with a blank stare heavily laid upon her face and with a foul air about herself as Catherine struggled with making the large bed.

"Would you like to walk with me through the forest?" Catherine asked blankly. The question held no meaning for her, but Samantha sat up quickly.

"Are you sure you won't get into any trouble?" she asked, not trying to mask her evident excitement.

Catherine giggled softly as she stood up from the bed and fixed her dress. "Please do not worry about me you silly!" she giggled again as she helped Samantha from the bed. "Let's go look for my Mr. Ralph who lives in the forest!"

They gathered themselves a flask of water each, to last them for the walk. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by tall trees and small shrubs that littered the forest floor. There were birds flying from tree to tree and squirrels scurrying from branch to branch. The blue sky over head was littered with small clouds and was just visible from the forest floor where Catherine and Samantha walked.

"So Catherine, do you know the spot where he lives?" Samantha asked roughly as she stepped to look around. There were only trees and little bushes, and all soon backed by even more trees and little bushes. "Oh please Catherine, don't tell me that you've gotten us lost!" Samantha's panic stricken voice pleaded as she walked out into a clearing only large enough for the two girls to lie side by side. They lay to rest and think about where they were. One did one, one did the other.

After hours of lying, Samantha had slept and reawaken to the setting sun's golden rays as late evening became early night.

"Catherine!" Samantha moaned as she lay still on her back. "Catherine! I want to go home!"

"I'm sorry Samantha! I wish I could be at home as well. But I'm not sure where we are." Catherine apologized as she shielded her eyes from the setting sun.

"Catherine, are you alright? You've never done that before!" Samantha asked worried as she sat up to glare at her friend.

"I'm not sure. My eyes have been really weak today, but I'm sure it's nothing, don't worry about Me." she smiled as she reassured her friend, though trying to reassure herself more.

As the sun continued to set, the surrounding trees grew shadows that threatened to devour the two girls. They had continued walking, pausing every three to six feet to change directions or to listen for footsteps.

One such time they paused in their efforts, they heard from the darkness behind them slow footsteps that seemed to be coming closer to the pair. Their hearts began to beat wildly as the panic within them grew to uncontrollable heights. Catherine herself was panicking so badly that she finally screamed, yelling in the process, "Please do not hurt us!"

The footsteps stopped, just shielded by the darkness behind Samantha. The voice of the one at which they searched made a slight cough, then exposed the scary foot steps to be none other than Ralph Crenshaw.

"Dear Catherine, why are you out here with only this girl for your protection? You must understand the importance of your protection to me." he said with an arrogant confidence in his voice. Catherine noticed this and seemed to realize that it must be the presence of Samantha that makes him act this way, no matter how annoying it seemed.

"Actually, we came out here to search for you, my love." she said carefully as she shined a fake smile that exposed all of her annoyance in her eyes.

"You two delicate darlings came all the way out here just to search for little old me?" he asked curtly as he walked over and behind Catherine, wrapping his arms around her waist and setting his head down upon her shoulder. "How sweet of you. But it is dark, so we should get you back home."

"Nonsense. We could stay out here all night, couldn't we Samantha?" Catherine asked her friend proudly, but when she received no verbal response, she looked over at her and she received then a nod. Catherine thought this odd, as Samantha almost always was verbal when given the chance to be. "Samantha dear, are you alright?" she asked as worry for her friend seemed to escalate from nowhere.

Samantha's eyes were fogged over as Catherine looked into them; she appeared as if in a trance, living and breathing, but nobody home.

"Ralph, we have to take her home, I'm worried for her." Catherine whispered in a panic as she ran quickly to Samantha's side. Ralph lost his eye contact with Samantha when Catherine pushed him away, releasing the dark haired girl from his spell.

"Catherine? Why are you crying?" Samantha suddenly asked as she once more became aware of her surroundings and mind.

"You're alright!" she cried happily as she guided her down the forest path back toward the cabin home where Catherine lived with her grandparents; they both followed Ralph, though at a far distance as not to be over heard if they wished to hold a private conversation without being interrupted.

"Catherine, what happened?" Samantha asked her friend terror-stricken; they walked closer to the edge of the forest, which now allowed them to see the cabin where Catherine spent most of her waking hours.

"I'm not sure, you just blanked out. You really scared me! You should never do that to people. It's wrong and completely cruel." Catherine scolded her friend as they now walked through the field. "I don't mind that you call him evil, I only wish for a truthful example, not a joke like that!"

You think I was lying, do you?" Samantha yelled as she stopped in the middle of the field. "That's fine! We will just have to see then, won't we Catherine?" She turned away from Catherine and ran quickly to the cabin, where inside Catherine's grandparents sat together eating their dinner.

"Mr. Porter! Mr. Porter!" Samantha came yelling into the dining hall as the elderly couple abruptly stopped eating their dinner and Catherine's grandfather stood up placidly.

"Ms. Cutsworth, what's the matter? Are you okay?" he asked quickly, almost grouping his words together with no space for air.

"It's not me! It's Catherine!" she yelled loudly, just loud enough for Ralph to hear while he went among his business in the field.

While Samantha was inside the cabin with Catherine's grandparents, the two were left in the field.

"I'm so sorry about her Ralph." Catherine softly cried as he held her in his arms.

"Its alright." he whispered just before he lowered his lips to the nape of her neck and softly bit down. Catherine's only audible response was a small 'oh' as she fell limp in his arms. She never gave a physical objection as he softly took in Catherine's valuable life-force.

"Hey you woodland varmint!" the elder man yelled vigorously as he ran towards the two in the middle of the field, loading the shot gun as he ran.

Ralph quickly pushed Catherine to the ground then whipped the dripped blood from his face. Catherine lay face down in the grassy field barely conscious when she heard her grandfather shoot off a round, impacting the man above her in the chest with strong force, pushing him backwards.

As the elder man gave off another round, once again impacting Ralph, this time in the back as he frantically ran back into the safe hands of the forest.

"N-no" a small voice spoke from the ground as Samantha ran to her own home on the other side of the village and the elder man ran toward his only granddaughter, kneeling down at her side.

"Dear, are you alright?" he asked frantically as he held her head on one arm and his hand on her chest.

Like a vampire of energy, Catherine used her grandfather's physical power to scream a sound so horrifying it held the power to silence a nation.


	4. Chapter 4

Here's Chapter 4, sorry it's been like, over a year since my last update!

Enjoy!

~L~

_**Chapter Four: Forget**_

Without Ralph, Catherine soon fell into a deep depression, destroying herself physically as well as mentally. There were days when she would not eat, or days where she would never stop eating. She was getting so bad, her ribs stuck out from her chest and her stomach sunk in. Her grandparents were very worried when she locked herself in her chambers, and never came out until nightfall.

During the day, while the elder woman did her chores throughout the home, she frequently heard her granddaughter crying loudly, as if her young heart was shattered.

Catherine believed that the man Ralph, who she had fallen in love with, was dead and no longer walking on God's green earth. Even for Catherine's loud cries, she never once accepted condolence from any living creature.

After two weeks of the young girl cry her heart out in agony, never once speaking a word, her sobs stopped. The house became eerily quiet, the silence ringing.

Sniffles were heard when the age withered old woman walked slowly, almost fearfully, toward her granddaughter's bed chamber. It was with great fear and a feeling of almost excitement at the chance to see Catherine's dear young face in sunlight that she opened the chamber door.

Catherine, the rare blond beauty, lay on her side on the finely carved canopy bed. She looked like an ill fairy princess, fearing her impending death.

When the elder lady walked in, Catherine jumped up, staring horror struck at the look upon her grandmother's face. The comforter that Catherine always slept with was wrapped haphazardly around one of her legs, her cheeks were a deep red and cracked from the stains of many shed tears, and the night slip that Catherine had settled on to sleep in the night before was pushed up her thighs and revealed the thin legs that held so little flesh.

"My dear Catherine, no." she gasped as her face drained of blood and became the reflected color of Catherine's hair, a pearly white. She slowly and carefully stepped over to the bed where Catherine laid, holding her upper body off the bed with a painful grimace on her once beautiful face.

"Grandma'ma!" she cried in a raspy voice as fresh tears fled from her eyes. "I'm sorry!" she wailed as she painfully tried to stand up and collapsed in her grandmother's open arms.

"Hush baby, you've done nothing wrong." she cooed in the teenage girl's ear as she held her fearfully. "All you need is some fresh air and soon you'll be back to yourself." she slowly rocked the thin body as she spoke softly, tears falling from her own eyes. The elder woman wondered, almost feared, that maybe fresh air and sunshine wasn't enough to heal the fragile body she held in her arms.

"Do you really think so?" Catherine cried softly as she looked up into her grandmother's eyes, tears to a slow cease. "Will fresh air make me better?"

"Yes, of course my dear." The elder woman's voice was weary, with a sound of the illness she had been coming down with for the past few days.

Just later that very afternoon, after Catherine gladly ate her lunch and drank lots of water, she walked into the woods alone.

It seemed like days passed as Catherine walked through the hundreds and thousands of trees, though sadly only hours had passed. She was running low on energy as she leaned against a tree for support, taking deep breaths. Her body was still frail and could not handle the ware she was putting on it with the walk she just _had_ to take. _I have to know if he is alive, I just have to._ She told herself in a small voice while she walked. _He was the reason for living, if he is gone, what would be the purpose to continue?_

She knew it would be a very bad idea to sit on the ground and rest, for she knew she would never rise again, helped or not.

Catherine weakly lifted the flask of water she had tied around her waist to her lips and drank, but only enough to parch her thirst. Water was God if you didn't live in it, especially out in the middle of a forest where Catherine hardly knew where she was.

Around her, trees spread for what seemed hundreds of miles. Fear seemed to cry deep inside Catherine.

The fear that she would die.

The fear that she was lost.

The fear that Ralph would never guide her out of the forest again.

She kept walking further as dusk came and the sky glowed orange on the horizon, though she only saw the orange streaks through the canopy of the trees, which blocked most of the sunlight from her desperate eyes. She took many breaks, drinking her water as she rested against a different tree, then continued on.

But as dark drew nearer, it became difficult for Catherine to see the forest floor below her, where roots and other such small shrubbery were plenty, and she began to trip, making her little energy last an even shorter time.

Finally, after tripping on something or another on every step, she fell to the ground, her foot caught under a large root. Catherine could not free herself. She began to panic, breathing heavy shallow breaths as warm tears fell down her delicate face.

The darkness around her seemed to draw nearer with every passing minute, and Catherine's hope of living seemed to disintegrate.

Finally, the tears put peace to Catherine through sleep. Her panic induced sleep blinded her ears to the sound of approaching footsteps.

When Catherine slowly opened her eyes, she was in a warm bed under a wool blanket in a room filled with darkness. The door stood across the room, with small amounts of sunlight filtering through the cracks that ran around the edges of it. Catherine quietly climbed off the bed, walking along a long chest against the wall.

This chest was covered by a thin off white sheet, but the bottom corners what were visible were dark, almost like finely charred wood. This didn't seem odd to her, she kept walking and went through the door into a similar room with a small fire in the center. Sunlight seeped through the cracks of the ajar door; the fire was just embers.

A covered tray sat on a chair that was next to the fire. Catherine lifted the cover off the tray and reviled a finely cooked meal, ready to eat. She stared at the food for a moment, then reached out, noting it was still warm.

Figuring the meal was meant for her, she sat down in the chair, laid the tray upon her lap, and began to eat.

The fire crackled softly as Catherine sat in the chair, staring deeply into the small flames. The world could have collapsed around her and she would never once had tore her eyes away from the flames.

From within the cloaked room, at nearly dusk, Ralph walked out. He came out from behind the chair and watched as Catherine sat hypnotized by the fire.

"My dear, how long have you been awake?" the deep, familiar voice asked the quiet girl who was drawn into the fire. Catherine jumped up, shocked. With her eyes wide open and breath held deeply. She looked into the eyes of her one true love as she gasped.

"Mr. Crenshaw! Your alive!" A look of joy covered her face and melted away all shock.

"Of course my darling. I would never leave you alone in this world." He said sweetly. "I actually was on my way to come visit you when I just so happened to stumble over a new ground upheaval. As it turned out, it was my dear baby doll." He smiled as he wrapped his arms around Catherine's thin shoulders.

The dress Catherine wore showed off her bony back and skinny arms. Her collar bone was like her ribs, as if they were meant to stick out of her skin.

"I-I fell asleep…" Catherine whispered almost silently as Ralph guided her to her feet.

"Catherine, dear, you're as thin as a sheet!" He said, shocked when he wrapped his arms around her thin waist, feeling just how thin she really was.

"Oh, yes." She whispered to acknowledge the fact that she heard Ralph's words. She had no intentions of actually explaining herself to him and therefore stared deep into the fire once more.

"So, dear, aren't you going to tell me why you lost so much weight over the last fortnight?" He asked carefully as he snuggled his nose in the nape of her neck.

"I…Um…" she sighed as she felt the man's hands on the small of her back and his lips on the nape of her neck. "I was very sad when I thought you were gone, and sort of…stopped eating for awhile."

Ralph's movements stopped, he stood full height and turned away from Catherine. "You know I do not wish for you to harm yourself." He spoke his words sternly and with purpose. The idea of Catherine harming her delicate body made Ralph's stomach do back flips. The blood that lurched in his stomach made attempts at forcing itself through his mouth as he stared at the wall.

"I'm fine. I'm alive, aren't I?" She moved around to face him as she said this, making attempts to get him to look at her.

"I need to leave for awhile." Ralph said suddenly as he turned to face the young, pale girl who stood next to the fire. The firelight glazed over Catherine's delicate form giving her an almost angelic appearance. The source of light seemed to radiate from Catherine, rather than it's actual source--the fire.

"Why? Have I offended you?" she asked, suddenly frightened of the older man's possible motives for trying to escape the small shack.

"No dear. " He approached her and softly pecked a kiss on her cheek. " I only have to see a person in the town just west of here. I shall return before the sun rises. I promise you, my dear Angel of the Night."

At nearly sunrise, when the slightest orange began to cross the night horizon Ralph carefully walked into the cabin carrying a burlap sack with moving contents. He was shocked as he looked up, seeing Catherine still sitting on the fireside chair staring blindly at the blue core.

" My Angel, you are still awake?" He asked as he pulled his coat over his chest to mask the blood that covered his white English dress shirt.

"Yes Mr. Ralph." She sighed at the disappointment at being disrupted from her fire time.

"Come on dear, I'll take you to bed in the side room." he said as he set the tied burlap sack next to the door and walked to Catherine's side. Catherine stood up and looked blankly into his eyes. The color of his eyes seemed different, like there was a red shading around the pupil, which was surrounded by the normal color of brown. The elder man gently grabbed Catherine's arm and showed her to the side bedroom where she had awoken from only earlier that same night. He lay her down in the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin.

"Sleep well my beloved angel, for tomorrow will be the awakening of a new light." He spoke his words softly and mesmerized the young girl with his voice.

The following day was just as Ralph had said, though there was really no light other than the fire.

Catherine sat hunched up against the wall with the blanket covering her face and body as the young vampire climbed silently out of the covered chest. He knew one sound may be a deadly mistake, not for him, but for the beautiful angel whom he wished to claim.

When Ralph removed the sheet from Catherine's face, he realized that the young girl had cried herself to sleep. What he did not know was that the fear Catherine held from not seeing her grandparents for almost three days, was taking a toll on her. Could she really live eternity without the aid of her grandparents? Would she die inside when they died?

Guilt began to flood Ralph's heart as he watched the young girl sleep through her troubles. Could he take the warmth from her body and make her happy with time? He knew there was nothing in the world that could ever give her back this warmth.

He crawled onto the bed next to Catherine and sat next to her, his legs outstretched. He could heard her breathing and feel her heartbeat.

He was having second thoughts.

"Ralph…" Catherine sighed quietly as her head fell onto his shoulder. Her eyes were open and they reflected some unseen light, golden yellow, almost like the sun. . .

In his aged mind, he could somewhat see the glowing yellow figure, though hazy with time. It had been almost a hundred years since Ralph's eyes themselves had seen the sun in it's natural state. Being reflected in one's eyes was only a saying, the sun itself could never be perfect when seen as a reflection in a human's eyes. He knew this.

But why did the sun seem so clear in the eyes of dear porcelain Catherine? The one human who seems destined to become a creature of the night?

Three taps came on Ralph's left arm, disturbing him from his thoughts. It seemed that dear Catherine's mind had awakened while Ralph pondered on her fate.

"Are you awake?" She asked in her gentle, sleepy voice.

"But of course, my darling… I was merely pondering…" he replied, as he asked himself for ways to bring up the topic of fate.

"Pondering? What sort of things were you pondering on, my love?" She asked her question innocently enough, though Ralph did not notice the change in her demeanor.

"Fate…" Was his whispered reply. "Why were you crying?" he asked as he remembered the image in his mind.

"Crying?" She repeated, honestly unsure of the man's question.

"Yes, when I woke, I found you sitting here with tears streaming down your cheeks. Please tell me what the matter is, maybe I can help." he asked as he wrapped his arms tight around the girl.

"But when nothing is wrong, there is no help to be given." Her answer seemed polite, but Ralph could not see how when he thought about it.

"There must be something wrong, for tears do not fall just so they are seen!" He said, his voice slightly growing in intensity.

"But my darling…" She began, but was interrupted by Ralph's words.

"If you miss your grandparents, please say so now." His words were quiet, yet fiercely spoken. It was not difficult for Catherine to realize that Ralph was serious about his words.

"I don't miss my grandparents… I just feel all alone…" She sighed as she lay her head upon Ralph's shoulder. "I just feel like I have only you to talk to…" Her voice crackled a little as light tears slid down her gentle cheeks.

"Please Catherine, do not cry." He asked her softly, laying his own head upon that of Catherine's in a wish of comfort. "Tears only make sadness deeper."

"I am aware…" she said, sounding as if she were to continue speaking, but did not. The silence seemed to stretch on as the two sat on the bed in the dim room.

"Tell me, what are your thoughts on life and time?" he asked after the silence grew irritating to him and Catherine sniffled quietly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked innocently as she looked into his eyes; he stared back.

"Their relationship, how do you feel about life over time?" He explained as she blinked slowly; he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"But life _is _over time." she replied as she watched his eyes look down at her chest then back to her eyes.

"I mean, life over eternity. Would you wish to live forever, my Catherine?" He watched as the young princess of night took the words in her head and thought about it.

"Oh, you mean like a vampire!" Her whole body perked up as she continued to speak, becoming excited, and almost hyper. "I think it would be awesome to live forever!" She smiled a wide smile that made Ralph wonder if she was really serious or not.

"I mean it Catherine, would you really take eternity over death?" He asked seriously, while on the inside excited that he may be able to spend forever with this angel.

Catherine stopped short of jumping onto her knees and fell back on her butt. "Of course, but it's not like I will ever seriously be given the chance though… vampires don't really exist." she said to him in a depressed tone, like he got her wishes up and chopped her.

"What would you say if I told you I had a way for you to live forever? Would you accept it?" he asked her in a serous tone, looking deeply into Catherine's honest, deep eyes.

"Only if forever were with you. But truly, there is no real way to live forever… is there?" She asked him wonderingly as she sat back against the wall and leaned on his shoulder.

"To become a vampire, eternity will surely be yours." he stated calmly as he drew young Catherine close to his body.

"But it's like I said," she repeated, "Vampires don't really exist." She was unaware at the moment that the man she laid against was really a creature of the night, always asleep by dawn and always up by dusk.

"What is it that makes you believe that so surely?" He asked, looking into her eyes. His question, to Catherine's ears, seemed to be questioning her beliefs.

"My church," she sighed heavily, "they told me it was punishable by death to believe that vampires of all things exist. They said I would hang for such thoughts." She sat quietly as she looked blankly at the wall across from the bed on which they sat.

A look of complete confusion came over Ralph's face. "What if I can take you away from all that? Give you a life that has no end." He pulled her closer still.

"What?" Catherine asked, looking almost frightened into his eyes. "Eternal life?"

"Yes Catherine. How would you feel about that? To live forever as my bride?" He asked, not even thinking about the young girls' reaction to being his bride.

"Your bride?" She asked dumbfounded as she sat up and away from him. With her hands pushing him away on his chest, she stared seriously into his eyes, shocked at his statement.

"Well, I mean, you don't have to be my bride. You could just be by my side, if you wish of course." he said quickly, looking in the opposite direction of the blushing girl.

"Of course I'll be your bride!" She exclaimed happily moving closer to him. "And I'll take eternity as well, only as long as I'm with you for all that time." She said softly before moving her face closer to Ralph's, gently kissing his silky lips.

"Are you really sure about this?" He asked as worry began to cloud his thought. Worry for Catherine, if he gave her the curse of endless dark nights.

"Yes, please give me eternal life." She asked as she moved closer for another kiss, receiving a passion filled kiss.

Ralph moved Catherine onto her back, laying on the bed, and he continued to kiss her. He moved down, to the nape of her neck, preparing to sink his teeth in.

"Are you really sure?" he asked one last time, just to be sure of Catherine's wishes.

"Yes, make me into a vampire!" She screamed wildly as Ralph sunk his sharp teeth into her neck, drinking the warm, sweet liquid that poured from the two puncture wounds in her neck. Underneath him Catherine moaned, enjoying the feeling of Ralph's lips on her neck and not really noticing the pain of the two razor sharp teeth in her flesh.

He rose from her, and after biting his own wrist, allowed Catherine to drink his warm blood, the needed step for her to become an immortal being of the night.


End file.
